Leonardo Cerebelli: Gadfly scientist and man about town

In preparation for an upcoming release of a deluxe omnibus edition of The Magnetron Chronicles, I've finally gotten round to finishing the biographical sketch of the redoubtable Leonardo Cerebelli....

Although no official written documents remain, credible accounts indicate that Leonardo Cerebelli was born in 1830 in New York’s Flatbush community to grocers Enzo and Aurora Cerebelli.  Nevertheless, Cerebelli was dogged for much of his life by rumors he was truly the son of notorious Cosa Nostra mafioso Nunzo “Il Capo” Tosto, fearsome patron of a post-feudal Sicilian cosca, or crime family.  Il Capo had reputedly sired dozens of illegitimate children and sent them abroad to appease his domineering spouse.  Anecdotal evidence suggests that Leonardo was spirited out of Sicily as an infant, hidden in a shipment of castelvetrano olives bound for New York.

Clever and industrious, young Leonardo excelled in his schoolwork but chafed at his duties in the family business.  This fractious state of affairs was typified by one of Leonardo’s earliest experiments, an inquiry into chaos theory in which the eight-year-old prodigy dropped hundreds of fragile inventory items to the floor and took detailed notes.  His father was horrified, as was his instructor, who labelled Leonardo’s pioneering work “unadulterated rubbish.”  Leonardo’s wry humor began to emerge as he coined derogatory Latin nicknames for regular customers, until his sly linguistic indiscretions were detected by one of his father’s business associates, after which time Leonardo took up Ancient Greek.

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Can You Hear Me Now?

 

A year and a half after publishing The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum, I'm now venturing into the brave new (for me, anyway) world of audio publishing in two different media forms.

I'm in the early stages of an Audible.com audiobook production read by the incomparable Lee Strayer of Atomic 27 Media.  The plan is to release the Magnetron Chronicles stories as they were originally conceived: in serialized form.  More details as they become available...

In other news, New Zealand-based Booktrack has created a new hybrid media form that enhances ebooks with synchronized music, sound effects and ambient sound (sample).  Booktrack has invited me to try out their upcoming beta studio, so I hope to have some titles available in their store soon.  That's assuming they have an appropriate sound effect for a zombified severed head piloting a steam-powered spacecraft.

Strong Verbs: The Writer's Action Heroes

This is the ninth installment in the continuing story of "Editing Mister D," a joint project to coach British nonfiction writer Pete Oxley through completion and publication of his first novel-length fiction work, now tentatively titled "The Infernal Aether."

Perhaps my most distressing writing bugbear is the scourge known as the “weak verb.”  Verbs are action words, so it would seem that simply using a verb would tend to jazz up an otherwise unremarkable noun but, alas, that is not always the case.  Some verbs are just so wan and lethargic they sap the life from entire paragraphs.

What is a weak verb?  My definition is: a verb which conveys too little information or description.  Hold on—a verb is supposed to be descriptive?  Isn’t that the job of adjectives and adverbs?  Well yes, adjectives and adverbs describe, but verbs can often do so as well, often better than any adjective or string of adjectives.  A verb can even contain a metaphor, all in  a single word.  And a verb that can do all of that is what I call a “strong verb.”

Editing Mister D: A New Project

I've been contemplating branching out into editing for years now, and I've finally taken a concrete step toward that goal. I ran a short contest at Wattpad and found a talented writer named Pete Oxley, who is working on a kind of steampunk series featuring a mysterious character known only as Mister D. We're going to be collaborating on a project to get Pete's intriguing stories refined into a finely tuned, hugely marketable ebook for sale at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all the usual suspects.

As this project progresses, I'll be blogging selected excerpts of our work, our communications, and behind-the-scenes activity of getting a manuscript from draft to print. We'll even be building Pete's social media platform and doing some basic promotion. If you're a writer, you'll learn a lot by following along. Even if you're not a writer, this ought to be an entertaining look at the brave new world of ebook self-publishing.

I've just asked Pete a whole slew of questions to get a better handle on where he's going with his stories, and as soon as I get some answers, I'll be posting some of our work here. Stay tuned...

A Fifth of Magnetron

Volume Five has arrived!

The wait is over.  Phineas and friends are back in a new Magnetron Chronicles adventure, now available exclusively in Kindle format from Amazon.

"In this fifth volume of Magnetron’s journals, the strange truth regarding Phineas J. Magnetron’s previously unexplained disappearance in 1901 is revealed, as are hitherto unremarked romantic interests.  Having journeyed to Berlin, the Hogalum Society members seek to clear their names and hunt down Eldridge Compost before he can wreak more havoc.  In so doing, they will be drawn into Compost’s twisted schemes, culminating in a battle to the death over German skies."

Come, come, now, dear reader, the opportunity is upon you.  Seize your mouse at once, direct it hither and click thereon as expeditiously as is practicable.   Do not fail to avail yourself of this thrilling tale of yesteryear!

E-pulp? That's a good thing, right?

After my rant on dumb reviews by dumb reviewers, I am very pleased to announce an intelligent review by an intelligent reviewer.  Dieselpunk author and pulp aficionado Grant Gardiner has recently reviewed "The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum" on Goodreads, giving it 4 Stars (Recommend).  Gardiner's latest project is his "Tommy Thunder and the Tales of the Aether Age" series, set in an alternate timeline 1920s America.  Thankfully, he took some time out to offer some insightful remarks on the first book in the Magnetron Chronicles series, calling it "fantastic... whacky steampunk... in the style of an H. Rider Haggard adventure story."

As an example of utilizing thoughtful criticism to better one's writing, I have taken Grant's suggestion to "package [the] stories together" to create a "more fulfilling reading experience."  More on that later....

Check out Mr. Gardiner's review here, and then plot a course for his blog here.  There be two-fisted, hair-part flipping action and adventure dead ahead...

The Smiljan Breach in Print

eSteampunk's long-awaited second issue

At long last, the December 2012 issue of eSteampunk is available from the steampunk imprint of eFiction.  This issue features "The Smiljan Breach," my prequel to the Magnetron Chronicles series, featuring Dr. Hogalum on a Viennese bender, the Luftigel's maiden voyage, and a cameo appearance by none other than Nikola Tesla.

eSteampunk's second issue also brings you Matt Bett's "The Safest Passage," George S. Walker's "The Case of the Night-walking Automaton" and eSteampunk's first serial, "Black Dragon Blues," plus stunning cover art by Jonathan Hunt.  Available in PDF, MOBI, and EPUB formats for only $3.99!

Big Doin's

A few announcements are in order, as The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum has now reached the psychologically significant (to me, anyway) "threshold of respectability" at Wattpad with 10,000+ reads!

This story has also been selected by the staff at Wattpad as a "Featured Selection" for October, which designation will garner a fair amount of publicity (I hope).

The clock is also ticking on the fourth volume in the Magnetron Chronicles series.  It will be called "High Crimes and Miscreants," and I'm on track for a mid-September release at all your favorite ebook retailers.

Finally, I'm working on a short story to submit to the inaugural issue of eFiction's new Steampunk edition.  I've got some of it online at Wattpad and would welcome any and all comments on it!

Does this bustle make my butt look big?

Steampunk icon G. D. Falksen, looking dapper and deadly serious

About twelve years ago, some friends of mine and I were knocking about some ideas on a collaborative writing project.  I found an interesting old Victorian Era drawing of an airship, added some funky lettering, and the National Hogalum Airshow and Speculative Fiction Workshoppe was born.

My creativity thus sparked, within a few months or so I was writing a (now defunct) web serial called The Secret Journals of Phineas J. Magnetron.  It was set in the 1870s, and narrated by the eponymous Phineas, a quirky inventor who also happened to be a member of the Hogalum Society, a secret organization of adventuring crime fighters.

I had unwittingly succumbed to the allure of steampunk.